“When we get targeted for things, it’s a function of our increased brand size in crypto,” Bankman-Fried said.
Alameda threw its anonymity to the wind in early 2019, when it decided to get listed on BitMex’s leader board. The firm had just opened an over-the-counter trading desk, and wanted to be better known to exchanges and clients. And it was preparing to launch its own crypto derivatives exchange, FTX, which debuted this spring.
“Exchanges all knew who we were, they saw our volumes; but other people didn’t,” Bankman-Fried said. The over-the-counter trading desk, which caters largely to Asian clientele, is trading in low eight figures a day, and has gotten more clients than expected, he said. The exchange is already trading a few hundred millions of dollars of derivatives a day, he said, adding that getting listed on the leader board definitely helped.
“For those companies that manage money, the leader boards can act as a type of track record that could be used to market their own services,” said Lex Sokolin, global financial technology co-head at ConsenSys, which offers blockchain technology. “While not as rigorous as an audited track record, it is still better than nothing.”
--With assistance from Luke Kawa.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.